What are the Pros and Cons of SMS Marketing? While in a world of unlimited resources every business should definitely adopt this strategy, in reality there are always choices and trade-offs to be made. If you are considering whether reaching out to your customers via text messages is worth your investment, in this article we go through the advantages and disadvantages of this popular strategy.

The great thing about text messages is that nearly 90% of text messages had a response in just 3 minutes of being received. If we compare SMS marketing to any other marketing channel, the results are quite astonishing. Text blast open rates are as high as 98% compared to measly 20% of all emails. Also, it takes not more than 90 seconds to respond to an SMS.

But, just like any other marketing channel, SMS marketing is also surrounded by several challenges. We've gathered the opinions of our experts and multiple sources where this question was asked and prepared the ultimate list of pros and cons of SMS marketing to help you make the right decision.

Pros

Permission-Based

SMS marketing is a permission-based marketing strategy, meaning each customer must have granted permission to the business to send text blasts to their cellphones. Simply put, permission-based marketing is an approach to promoting and advertising goods and services when a customer has explicitly granted consent to receive messages.

Because of this particular feature, SMS marketing leads to better and more profitable results because your engagement is anticipated and more personal than any other marketing avenue that doesn’t pay attention to the recipient’s consent.  

People who haven't permitted you to send emails or text blasts are more likely to report your marketing campaign as spam and can significantly drop your deliverability rating.

Since permission-based marketing forms the basis of text message marketing, you would be able to better target your customers and your SMS list will include individuals who have willfully opted in your marketing campaign.

Direct and Personal

Another significant benefit of integrating SMS marketing into your marketing strategy is that it enables businesses to send on-the-spot messages. For example, if you want to offer a deal or a discount for any specific day, you can simply mention 'today-only' to grab instant attention. Real estate agents can particularly take advantage of this feature and can instantly notify their clients about the latest listings.

This direct and personal way to communicate with your customs can give you a competitive advantage over your competitors who don't use SMS marketing techniques to engage their customers. Also, it helps you build a loyal customer base for your business. A study by Twilio concluded that most consumers prefer to engage with businesses via text message. With SMS marketing, you can make your customers feel valued by providing exclusive news and alerts as well as introducing them to other value-added deals and discounts. 

Cost-Effective

Marketing and advertising is an expensive affair. But SMS marketing compared to other marketing options is relatively affordable and far-reaching. At SaturnText, for example, you can thousands of texts for roughly 1 cent per text.  Also, you don’t have to hire a dedicated writer or a designer to craft an intriguing message for your SMS marketing campaign (which is the case when it comes to email and social media marketing). With only 160 characters at hand, you can only write a short and to-the-point message with a clear CTA that generally includes a link to your product's landing page. This enables you to quickly communicate your message to your target audience.

Adaptability

Whether you want to send a text message to a limited number of people or looking to send thousands of texts to your entire SMS list, text message marketing can be your safest bid. With SMS marketing, you can send relevant messages to your target audience. For instance, if your product range is diversified and you want to target two different age groups, you can create and send a personalized message to each group separately. Also, you can use your SMS marketing campaign for a variety of different purposes – send reminders, announce deals, send notifications are just to name a few.

Cons

Your Messages Has to Be Short!

Unlike email marketing that allows you to write a detailed message along with pictures and sound, you do not have ample space to get your message across with SMS marketing. So, if your goal is to explain a very complex topic, sms may not be the best channel.

On the other side, promotions and short messages with a clear call to action are extremely effective and the best way to use sms marketing.

Timing matters

There is a time for everything, and especially with something as personal as a text message, timing matters. The other factor to consider is what are the times that your customers are most likely to engage with your business.

For example, for restaurants and bars, messages mid-afternoon are usually more effective, as they reach customers before their dinner decisions, but not too early. For retail businesses, messages closer to the weekend are usually more effective. For your business it may be some other time, the only way to find out is understanding how your customer engages with you and testing out a few alternatives.

It needs management

This one is a bit obvious, but we couldn't leave it out. While services such as SaturnText make managing sms campaigns extremely easy, you still need to dedicate some time in order to achieve success.

After the initial setup, most of your time will be spent in crafting messages, optimizing your customer segmentation, and growing your customer list.

Final Words

When businesses are considering integrating text blast marketing into their marketing framework, they should weigh all the advantages and disadvantages, including the cost factor and how well their customers are likely to respond to their SMS campaign.

While the potential audience for text message marketing is confined compared to other conventional marketing channels, it can help you build a strong and loyal customer base that will help promote the business through other marketing channels. Contingent upon your marketing budget and requirements, the pros and cons of text message marketing may fit well with your overall business marketing strategy.

If you haven’t already considered incorporating text blast marketing into your busyness framework, this article is only for you. Take a hint from this post and get started with your campaign NOW.